Who Are You?

1

"I'm sorry..."

I opened my eyes slowly, confused for a couple seconds. I didn't remember falling asleep. I blinked my eyes a few times, trying to regain focus, but all I saw in front of me was white. As I started to move, I felt a pang in my chest, like something had been ripped away from me, despite not actually being injured.

Where was I? Why did I feel like I was missing an important piece of myself?

I sat up in the strange bed and examined the room I found myself in. The walls were white, and so was the tile on the floor. The sheets on my bed were blindingly white, and I had to look away from them so I didn't lose my vision. As I continued to look around, I realized that there were machines around the back of the bed.

'I must be in the hospital, then,' I thought.

However, that only lead to more questions. How did I get here? What was I doing that lead me to be here in the first place? And why did I feel like I didn't belong here? Not just this hospital, but this place, this... time almost...

Suddenly the door opened, and a girl with pink hair walked in, carrying a clipboard. She looked up from the board, and when she saw me, her green eyes widened and she gave a sharp gasp. She stepped back into the hall slowly, slid the door shut, and then I heard her feet almost sprinting away.

'I'm not that scary, am I?' I wondered.

Within moments of that thought, there were multiple sets of footsteps pounding down the hall, heading in my direction. I scooted as far back in the bed as I possibly could, not sure what kind of threat I might be facing.

The door slid open so fast I thought it would break off the track, and there was a group of four people: the pink haired girl, an old man with spiky white hair and red marks going down his cheeks from his eyes, a blonde woman with large... assets, and a man with a mask covering half his face and a headband covering one eye, all standing in the doorway, staring at me with wide eyes. However, the one-eyed man's silver, gravity-defying hair brought back a small memory flash of an adorable little boy I visited often on walks... at least, I thought I visited him often.

"Kai-Chan? Is that you? You're all grown up now!" I said excitedly, not giving the man a chance to reply at first.

But then I looked at his face a little more, and saw in his eye he was confused. Apparently he didn't understand why I was calling him Kai, and I knew this wasn't that little boy.

"Naruto... I'm your teacher, Kakashi. Kai was actually the name of my grandfather... but how could you know that name?" The man now identified as Kakashi was definitely confused.

'He's not the only one.'

The man with spiky white hair stepped further into the room. I looked at him for a moment, before I flashed through a collection of memories: memories of a baby, with black hair that was turning white. Memories of a toddler learning to walk. Memories of a little boy with white hair and red marks on his cheeks smiling up at me while a man with long, thick black hair stood beside him, a hand on the boy's head and a look of pure joy on his face. And finally, a memory of the boy crying out to me and crying for his mother, tears pouring down his face; and the man also looking sad but trying to hold the boy from running to me. The man kept saying the boy's name in an attempt to comfort him. He kept repeating, over and over...

"Jira-Chan..." I said. The second I did, the white haired man suddenly stiffened, as if I had said something that he wasn't expecting.

"Wh-what did you just call me?" the man stuttered.

I looked at him questioningly, but gave in after a few moments of silence and repeated myself. "Jira-Chan."

I saw tears gather in "Jira-Chan's" eyes even from my spot on the bed, before the man walked slowly closer to me. When he reached my side he kneeled down on the floor, and buried his face in the sheets, near my leg. He wrapped his arms around my waist and I watched sadly as this man, holding me like he never wanted to let me go, broke down, his body wracked with gut-wrenching sobs. I put my hand on his head and started petting his hair back, somehow knowing this would soothe him.

"Jira-Chan, why are you crying?" I asked softly. I didn't want to disturb him, or make him more upset, but I had to know so I knew how to comfort him.

"That name... that name is one only my mother and father used to call me. My father defected from the village when I was still a child, while my mother... m-my mother.... d-died when I w-was... 5 years old... right in front of me... taking my baby brother or sister away from us at the same time... my m-mother's final w-words to my father and I... were..."

"'I'm sorry'," I finished in a whisper, remembering what I had said as I was waking up. I wasn't sure how I knew it was the correct answer, but the fact Jira-Chan only started to cry harder made it pretty obvious I was right.

"Alright, that's all fine and dandy, but how the hell do you know that, Naruto?" Kakashi asked.

"My name is actually Naru," I corrected automatically without taking my eyes from Jira-Chan, surprising many in the room, and causing Jira-Chan to hold my waist all the tighter. I wasn't sure why I corrected him, but Naru felt right. Naruto felt like it didn't belong to me. It wasn't my name. I didn't want to be Naruto anymore, I wanted to be simply Naru. I got a random flash of that same man with thick black hair in a long ponytail, holding my hand as we walked through a village at twilight. He smiled down at me, and then at our linked hands, where I saw a glint of gold on his ring finger. At first I thought I was the "mistress" of an adulterer, until the me in the memory lifted my own hand to show off a matching ring. I gave this man next to me a squeeze to his hand, as we looked at each other; he smiled softly at me, saying my name almost on a whisper, "Naru-Koi."

I continued to pet Jira-Chan's hair for a while, until I remembered there were still two other people I hadn't acknowledged in the room.

I looked up and my gaze landed on the blonde woman. Instantly, I saw flashes of a young girl standing beside a man with brown hair. I walked up to them both and said hi to the man before kneeling down to the girl and also saying hi to...

"Tsuna-Chan, you've grown into such a beautiful woman! Your father must be so proud!" I said, smiling at her. Then I noticed something that made my smile melt.

As soon as I said her name, Tsuna-Chan put her head down, and her hands clenched into fists at her sides. For some reason, I knew that she needed some comfort, and I was the only one who could give it to her, but I was trapped on my bed by a sobbing Jira-Chan.

I bent forward and whispered in the man's ear, "Jira-Chan, Tsuna-Chan is upset right now too. I need to comfort her, but I can't do that if I can't get out of bed. Do you think you could let me get up and give Tsuna-Chan a hug? I promise I'll be right back over here when she feels better."

Jira-Chan nodded slightly and reluctantly pulled his arms from my waist, standing up next to my bed. I gave him a smile, which he gave a watery one in return, tears still staining his cheeks.

I moved to the edge of the bed and slowly got to my feet, unsure how long I had been in that bed and whether I was capable of supporting myself or not. I was a little unsteady at first, but I caught myself before I could fall, and first walked over to Jira-Chan, drying his cheeks and eyes with my thumbs.

"Thank you, Jira-Chan." I stood on my toes and kissed his cheek lightly, before turning and making my way over to Tsuna-Chan. I didn't realize I was so much shorter than these two. I brushed off that thought and reached out to put my hand on Tsuna-Chan's shoulder. She flinched at first, and I almost pulled back my hand, before she turned toward me and enveloped me in a tight embrace. She collapsed to her knees, and I went with her, holding her and wondering why she seemed so sad.

"Tsuna-Chan? What's wrong? Was it something I said?" I whispered to her.

"Y-you look so much... so much like Jiraiya's mother... When you called me Tsuna, I was reminded of my ch-childhood and how much darker the v-village seemed after th-the Incident..." Tsuna-Chan hiccuped.

I was confused. How was I getting these memories about people I knew and also someone I wasn't supposed to know? What Incident could make an entire village feel darker? And how was I related to someone who died well before I was born?